Parents Breathe Easier After Baby CPR Class

Like other new mothers, Geni McCoy worries about being confronted by a medical emergency for her infant son.

But thanks to a new piece of equipment--with the not-so-colorful name of “resusci-baby”--she knows how to react if her month-old boy stops breathing.

While Michael Allen McCoy slept serenely, his mom and his dad, Allen, recently got cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in their apartment.

Therese Hise of the Visiting Nurse Assn.’s prenatal and postnatal program was the instructor. Her program is part of the “Nine by ‘90” program, a state initiative aimed at reducing the number of infant deaths to nine per 1,000 live births by 1990.

In Macon County so far this year, two babies have fallen victim to sudden infant death syndrome, an unexplained malady that kills sleeping babies who seemed healthy when they were put to bed.

There were three such deaths in 1986, five in 1985 and seven in 1984, according to coroner’s office reports.

Smaller Dummies Used

Resusci-baby is smaller than the dummies used to train for adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The techniques must be adapted especially for small chests and the breathing rates of babies.

The model was needed, Hise said, so parents could be taught in their homes, at their convenience and without the complications of scheduling classes.

Many of the VNA’s clients are low-income families who have high-risk babies on apnea monitors, devices that signal parents when their babies stop breathing.

In the past, Hise had to borrow the Decatur Fire Department’s model baby to work with her clients.

Resusci-baby was purchased for $416 by the benevolent association, Unit 99, of the Macon County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies quickly agreed to the purchase when it was proposed by Hise, according to president Paul Johnson,

“It only took three or four minutes to vote. It was felt if that doll could save one child’s life it was money well spent,” Johnson said.

Helping Choking Baby

In addition to providing CPR instruction, the model can demonstrate how to deal with infants’ choking on food or other objects.

A choking baby or unresponsive infant found in a crib frightens mothers, Hise says. “It is a high-stress thing, and it is very easy to become confused. Many of them have gotten training at the hospital, but we sometimes find they have forgotten what they were taught.

“By teaching them in the home, they are in their own surroundings and should remember more and relate what we are telling them to actual emergencies.”

Geni McCoy is pleased with the training she received, she said. “I think I can do it. It makes me feel a lot more secure about the baby.”